Andy Ihnatko's take on the latest PlayBook video

> No, no. That’s only a dumb scheme if you think of the PlayBook as a consumer device, like the iPad. If they’re trying to sell them to IT managers instead of consumers, it’s an interesting play. To those folks, this invisible umbilical means that their lives won’t be complicated by a dumbass user (likely the kind who’s paid enough to own an estate with a living chessboard in which each of the game pieces is a painted giraffe) who loses a tablet somewhere. I agree with Ihnatko that this move clearly shows that Blackberry is now leaning the Playbook toward the IT professional, rather than the consumer. But if you ask me, the strategy from RIM has been anything but consistent.

If the plan all along was to market it to IT, then why call it the “PlayBook.” Why the flashy promo video from a few months ago? That was clearly not targeted toward server geeks. So is this a recent decision to switch back to IT?

My guess is that RIM still doesn’t’ know what it wants to do with this product. And that’s just sad. Not only did they announce this vapor product way before it was ready; they announced it before they had even decided what the target audience would be. That’s some serious mismanagement on the executive staff’s part.

Welcome to RIM 2011. Rehashing failed Palm strategies from 2007. Why not just call it the RIM Foleo and be done with it?

Those incoherent answers during interviews with the CEO are starting to make more sense now.

At the end of the day, there’s is still no answer to the simple question: Who will buy this thing?

Maybe RIM will figure out the obvious answer and kill this thing before it launches. You’re copying that much from Palm already; might as well go all the way with it.